Richard Herrnstein

Matching law

Perhaps his most notable accomplishment was the formulation of the matching law: choices are distributed according to rates of reinforcement for making the choices. An instance for two choices can be stated mathematically as

,

where R1 and R2 are rates of response for two alternative responses, and r1 and r2 are rates of reinforcement for the same two responses. Behavior conforming to this law is matching, and explanations of matching and of departures from matching are a large and important part of the literature on behavioral choice.

Personal life Herrnstein married his first wife, Barbara Brodo, in May 1951. The couple had a daughter together, Julia, before their divorce in February 1961. Through his second marriage to Susan Chalk Gouinlock, in November 1961, he fathered two sons named Max and James. Herrnstein died of lung cancer shortly before the book Bell Curve was released.

Selected bibliography A Source Book in the History of Psychology, Edited by Richard J. Herrnstein, Edwin G. Boring, Harvard 1965 I.Q. in the Meritocracy, Richard J. Herrnstein, Atlantic Monthly Press 1973 (expansion of article, "I.Q. In the Meritocracy", Atlantic Monthly 1971) Crime and Human Nature: The Definitive Study of the Causes of Crime, James Q. Wilson, Richard J. Herrnstein, The Free Press 1985

The Matching Law: Papers in Psychology and Economics by Richard J. Herrnstein, Edited by Howard Rachlin, David I. Laibson, Harvard 1997